The display of ceramic poppies at the Tower of London has been one of the highlights of the month.

Five million people have visited the Tower to view the 888,246 poppies, each signifying a British and Colonial military fatality in the First World War.

Since the 12th November a group of 11,000 volunteers have been removing 75,000 poppies per day from the moat of the Tower of London. Each poppy has been sold for £25 each, raising millions of pounds for six service charities.

While JCB has become synonymous with the British backhoe loader, Terex can also claim to have an equally rich heritage in its veins.

Although a US firm, Terex is planning to mark 55th anniversary of its British backhoe loader, manufactured in Manchester until 2003 and subsequently in Coventry.

Terex is a US company that was effectively created in its modern form by acquisitions. When it listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1991 it comprised primarily of a Motherwell-based off-highway truck division that once belonged to General Motors and Koehring Cranes in the USA.

A Derbyshire waste business is using a Remu screening bucket on a Bobcat skid steer loader to speed up the processing of construction waste.

Rainbow Waste is a family-owned business that was established in 1998 with a single refuse truck and 40 second-hand bins. Today it operates a waste transfer station in Swadlincote with recycling services for commercial and domestic customers.

Both refuse trucks and skips come into the waste transfer station. As much as possible is recycled to avoid paying for waste to go to landfill. The trucks tip general waste into a trommel and it then goes through the picking line. The skips are initially sorted by hand.